The game of “Texas hold 'em” has become a very popular form of poker. The game begins by dealing two cards to each player, with players making initial and subsequent wagers in order to remain in the game. A series of five common cards are dealt sequentially, with players continuing to place wagers as the common cards are dealt in order to remain in the game. The best five-card combination comprising one or two cards from each player hand and either four or three cards selected from the five cards of the common hand wins the hand.
One problem with Texas hold 'em is that the game is limited to a relatively few live participants, due to the logistics involved in physically dealing cards to all players and the wagering system used in the game. In Texas hold 'em, several rounds of wagers are placed, with each player having to consider the wager or other action of the previous player in turn and either raise, check, call, or fold, as desired. It will be appreciated that in a game with a large number of players, the wagering system may become impossibly cumbersome.
As a result, computerized electronic variations of Texas hold 'em have been developed. In these computerized games, the players are not playing against one another, but rather play against the computer program and its randomly generated selection of card representations. The end result for a given player is generally the same, whether only a single player or a large number of players participates. Any wagers placed, and any winnings (or losses) are not necessarily dependent upon the number of other players participating, or their actions during a given hand, as in live play. Such computerized play is not suitable for use by relatively large groups of participants due to the lack of interaction between players in most such systems. Also, the cost and complexity of the computerized equipment required for play may be a limiting factor.
Another method of randomly selecting a winner from a group of participants is by means of the conventional raffle ticket, commonly used for the distribution of door prizes and similar awards at various events. Tickets for such activities are commonly printed as a roll of sequentially numbered ticket pairs, with the roll having two identically numbered tickets at each sequentially numbered position. Each participant receives one of the tickets from a given position on the roll, with the identically numbered ticket being placed into a common collection receptacle. While such a system readily determines a single winner from each drawing, there is no skill required on the part of the participants and the process is generally not particularly exciting or interesting for those involved. As a result, it has been known for at least some players to compare the numerical sequences of their tickets with one another, in order to determine a winning sequence (e.g., a pair, three of a kind, a straight, etc.), somewhat as in various games of poker. However, as there are no suits with such number sequences on tickets, this informal game is quite limited.
Thus, a card game solving the aforementioned problems is desired.